Border monument misery
The Elend border monument , also known as the Bremke meeting place , is a monument on the former inner-German border.
location
It is located north of today's federal highway 27 between Braunlage in the west and Elend (Harz) in the east. Immediately to the west of the monument, the so-called Kolonnenweg runs along the GDR border fortification. The former border line, which today represents the border between the federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt , runs a little further west. The monument itself is located on the Elender district in Saxony-Anhalt, which belongs to Oberharz am Brocken .
layout
The monument consists of two slanting halves of a granite boulder that run towards each other and are connected at the top. In the upper half there is a board with the inscription:
GERMANY
1989
Below is the curved lettering:
REUNITED
Below the text, ten oak leaves are depicted on the left and five on the right, which are connected or separated by barbed wire . The oak leaves symbolize ten West German and five East German states. Berlin, as the sixteenth federal state, is not included in this symbolism due to its special position. The crowns around the planted oaks should grow together over time.
history
After the border in Berlin and at existing border crossing points between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany had been opened on November 9, 1989, efforts were also made to quickly create further transition options. This is also the case in the vicinity of Elend and Braunlage. On November 12th, a border crossing between Ellrich and Zorge was set up and opened at 11.55 a.m. , at around 1 p.m. at Jägerfleck between Rothesütte and Hohegeiß and in the afternoon in Eckertal between Stapelburg and Bad Harzburg . On the radio the message was spread that a border opening was planned for 2 p.m. for misery. A large crowd gathered in front of the first border fence two kilometers from the border. The border police there, however, were still waiting for the official order to open the border, which then arrived at 2:30 p.m. by helicopter. After an ID check, people were allowed to pass and reached the actual border between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. from the east.
Five people from the west, including Zimmermann Helmut Windten and the school director Peter Podei, had brought a Zöllnersteg over there , making it possible to cross the Bremke creek .
A large number of GDR citizens crossed the border in the hours that followed. A shuttle service with minibuses was set up between the border and Braunlage. In the town hall of Braunlage, 100 DM welcome money was paid out, whereby the cash stocks were soon exhausted and more money had to be fetched from Goslar .
There were exuberant celebrations and encounters on both sides of the border.
During the night, the border crossing was closed again after 2 a.m. There was a rumor that the border crossing was supposed to remain misery. On November 13th an initiative was formed to maintain the border crossing. The organizers, including Werner Versterling from the New Forum from Schierke and Isolde Hiller, called for a demonstration in front of the town hall in Elend for Tuesday, November 14, 1989, 2 p.m. 70 to 80 people turned up for the demonstration. A poster read border yes - but open! An officer spoke from the steps of the town hall, explaining that there should not be border crossing points everywhere and that this is also not common between capitalist countries. This met with clear criticism from the demonstrators. The group called out that there were no more controls there and that you could cross borders anywhere. The officer then agreed to reopen the Elend border crossing.
In the following time there was considerable travel to the west, which in the west was handled by many volunteers. A thank-you event took place on December 24, 1989, the first day on which citizens of the Federal Republic were allowed to travel to the GDR without a compulsory exchange , with consumption in misery and a catering stand at the border. On April 1, 1990, a second border crossing was opened in the Elender district at the Kaffeehorst . With German reunification on October 3, 1990, the requirement for border crossings finally ceased.
The Braunlager Helmut Rosenberg initiated the tradition of an annual border opening ceremony, which took place around November 12th.
Places of remembrance also emerged on both sides of the border. The Elend border monument was inaugurated on November 10, 1996.
literature
- Karlheinz Brumme, Elend - Chronicle of a small Harz village under the Brocken , 2nd expanded edition 2010, page 273 ff.
Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 6.6 " N , 10 ° 38 ′ 14.6" E